One class. One quarter. One project.
Andrea Han’s final project for her RTVF media construction class was screened at Louis Hall in front of an audience of about 40 people, but the Communication junior’s hard work was only showcased once.
While Han notes she posted the film on YouTube and updated her Facebook status, she concedes, “I put a lot of work into it, the production and working with actors — but the whole school couldn’t see it.”
Communication sophomore Stephen Ling, also majoring in RTVF, echoes this sentiment.
“Generally, most student films disappear,” he says. “You spend an entire quarter working on it. I feel there aren’t enough outlets and I’d like to see what other students do.”
Han and Ling embody the exact audience NU Channel 1 is targeting: students who have produced media for class or other outlets with limited means of distribution.
Revived in 2009 by McCormick junior Paul Foryt, Weinberg junior Makoa Kawabata and Communication junior C.J. McFate, NU Channel 1 aims to become the distribution hub for the Northwestern media production community and a valuable networking resource for students, faculty and alumni, according to their Web site.
Currently, NU Channel 1 is the Internet distributor of four student-run serial productions: (Un)Dead Seriously, Hapless, Sky Pilots and The Flipside News Network. According to Kawabata, NU Channel 1 is working to build a collection of Northwestern student films for online, on-demand viewing.
“Our focus is really just distributing student media projects,” Kawabata says. “We want serial material and one-hour short films.”
Foryt, Kawabata and McFate, the general managers for NU Channel 1, previously worked together on (Un)Dead Seriously, a comedy Web series about a group of college kids that happen to be zombies.
Kawabata and Foryt created (Un)Dead Seriously in October 2008 and distributed their episodes online. Similarily, the three other programs signed by NU Channel 1 — Hapless, The Flipside News Network and Sky Pilots — were also published for viewing on the Internet.
“The three of us just came together,” Foryt says. “Makoa and I had this idea [for NU Channel 1], and C.J. was also looking for people to restart more distribution. It just so happened that at a party, C.J. was there and we saw each other and got to talking.”
The station, part of NUTV, was actually established in October 2008 but never really got off the ground. “Initially, (Un)Dead Seriously was picked up as a series for NUCH1,” McFate notes. “They did an open call for new content and brought us on board, but by winter quarter, none of the other productions made anything. [(Un)Dead] survived. We, as zombies, outlived [NU Channel 1.]”
At the moment, NU Channel 1 has no involvement with NUTV. Kawabata notes, “We have no idea who is in charge of it and we know that the machine that converts material to broadcast format has been disposed of.”
Despite the name continuation, Northwestern Channel 1 is completely separate from the station that the (Un)Dead trio were initially signed onto — their content is currently being distributed online. As there was no one group that coordinated the channel, the three current general managers of NU Channel 1 had to take matters into their own hands.
“The outlet just didn’t exist,” Foryt explains. “There was no opportunity for student television at Northwestern.”
While Ling points to NSTV and Studio 22 as resources for student media on campus, he notes he does have gripes with student film at Northwestern.
“It’s not reviewable,” Ling says. “I know some students whose short films made it into Cannes, but nobody knows where that went. Generally, most student films disappear, and you spend an entire quarter working on them. I feel there aren’t enough outlets, and I would like to see what other students do.”
Foryt, Kawabata and McFate have recognized this plight and made it the focus of their goals with NU Channel 1. They plan to not only have NU Channel 1 broadcast on NUTV, but also for anyone else on the Internet. The appeal is two-fold: to both reach a broader audience and to expose the content of Northwestern media students to the world.
“We want to be grab journalism and film students to give them a ledge to keep school projects going,” Foryt says.
NU Channel 1 is still in its formative stages, according to Kawabata, and while they do not currently produce their own content, it is an aspect they hope to address in the future.
“We’re just the distributor,” Kawabata explains. “We’re looking to do content later, and to eventually become a one-stop shop for student media, to give other people exposure to the number of talented individuals at Northwestern.”
Maybe once NU Channel 1 is up and running, we’ll finally discover the wide array of student media that flies below the radar on campus. And maybe, Han and Ling will take advantage of the outlet to showcase their projects.
“It was great to see the reaction dynamic between the audience and my film [at the screening],” Han says. “It gave me a glimpse into the real world.”
Thanks to commenter “m” for pointing out the Cahn/Cannes error — it has since been corrected. North by Northwestern sincerely regrets the error.